I have always known Nigerians to be very optimist people even in
the face of untold hardship and suffering. The late music legend
Fela Anikulapo once sang of the “suffering and smiling” syndrome
of the average Nigerian. We are stoic in the face of adversary,
always objective even when all logical conclusions point to the
other direction; and we are quick to retort to our normal mantra
‘e go beta’ (everything will be alright). Little did I know that
this is not a generally shared belief in Nigeria as there are
people out there whose hope of a better tomorrow have been dashed
by decades of unbelievable destruction of their environment and
means of livelihood and survival. Ogoniland is one of the most
devastated place on earth and its people living below the average
standard of life in a country like Nigeria, with their life
expectancy hanging around 41years. It is not uncommon to hear an
average person in Ogoniland refer to him/herself as a living
corpse. A land totally devastated by corporate greed and uncaring
government profiteering.

I was in the company of Nnimmo Bassey, the 2010 Right Livelihood
Award winner and Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation
(HOMEF) and Dr. Monika Griefahn, the Co-Chair of the Right
Livelihood Award Foundation on tour of Ogoniland. The laureate
was in Port Harcourt with Dr. Griefahn to inaugurate the 5th
Right Livelihood College Campus at the University of Port
Harcourt; making UNIPORT the 2nd university in Africa and 1st in
Nigeria to be so honoured. After the inaugural lecture, we set
out for Ogoniland to see the much talked about environmental
pollution but what I ended up seeing was an environmental
devastation of an unexplainable scale. Our first call of visit
was Goi Community; a community without a single inhabitant! A
whole community ransacked by severe environmental impact.

The strong stench of crude oil that greeted my nostrils as we
entered the community was impossible to ignore; I felt a burning
sensation in my throat and chest for 3 days after the visitation!
The rivers were dead and the species in them were either dead or
all gone – no fish, crabs, shrimps; nothing to justify the
existence of life within the river. Unfortunately for the Goi
people, their land is not an oil producing community but they are
the most impacted of all by the activities of multinational
corporations. According to Nnimmo Bassey the situation here “…is
ecocide; the destruction of the land and the sea and everything.
Nothing in the foreseeable future will restore this back to
normal and the Nigeria Federal Government and Shell Corporation
needs to act immediately in cleaning up these communities as
recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
report on Ogoniland.” The visiting Co-Chair of Right Livelihood,
Dr. Griefahn was shocked by the stack reality of the
environmental devastation. She says “you could fill your tank
just by scooping the stuff right here.”

While speaking with the HRH Mene Tomii S. Tomii Chairman Goi
Council of Chiefs and Elders/Bua Numuu say “we go to neighbouring
villages to get our basic needs; no drinking water, no pure
water, no streams.” He went on to say that “Goi community has 5
streams but they are polluted (by crude oil spills), no drinking
water, no government facility, no health care centre, no
electricity, nothing!” Mene Tomii explained that “People say this
is a bushy area, but why is it bushy area? It is because we have
deserted the land because of the environmental (degradation).”

The agony on their faces and pains in their heart tell the untold
stories of hardship in this once-upon-a-time Disneyland. He
showed us one of his harvested yam tubers, which was quite big
but rotten deep inside as a result of crude oil contamination.
The people in Goi community are now environmental refugees in
neighbouring villages, coming to Goi only to farm in the
contaminated land despite the big sign post that reads “PUBLIC
NOTICE: PROHIBITION! CONTAMINATED AREA, PLEASE KEEP OFF, BY
ORDER: HYDROCARBON POLLUTION RESTORATION PROJECT (HYPREP),
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES.” But the poser is;
where will these people go? And why restore hydrocarbon
pollution, instead of restoring the health of the polluted and
devastated areas? It shows the half thought-through action plans
of the government are just meant to placate the people and not to
find real and lasting solution to their problems.

We witnessed the same story of destruction and environmental
degradation in Bodo Community. Our airways were filled with the
concentrated hydrocarbon smell. The water bodies were coated by
crude oil and the water sources were highly contaminated as a
direct result of Shell extractive activities in the Niger Delta
which have caused permanent damages to the fragile ecosystems. I
was feeling lightheaded by the time we reached the centre of Bodo
community as my body metabolism couldn’t withstand the continued
assault by crude oil fumes on my body system; but I forced my
mortal body on when I sighted a nursing mother feeding her child
inside the terrible stench. I asked her if she wasn’t affected by
the stench, her response was shocking “wetin I go do?” What can I
do? I was told by the villagers that children still swim in the
contaminated rivers since there are no alternative waters around
to bath. The feeling of powerlessness in this region is not
limited to this poor woman, but how can I blame them after years
of neglect by their government? Shell is having a field day while
people in the Niger Delta are dying of terrible health diseases
on a daily basis. Those that try to resist or challenge the
capitalist agenda of the multinationals are immediately tagged
enemy of the state and persecuted.

But I can feel the wind of change blowing as the people are once
again recognising the power in their voice just like the days of
Ken Saro-Wiwa. The people are organising again, and young people
are leading the change – for peaceful direct actions against
polluters. As Celestine Akpobari of Ogoni Solidarity Forum put it
“we must restore the dignity of our ancestral land and preserve
it for the coming generations.” He explains further, “our matter
is a case of justice, if the government agrees to our legitimate
demands, naturally peace we come.” Unfortunately he says “the
government were trying to come in through the back down,
therefore, we created the Ogoni Solidarity Forum not to upstage
the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) but to
use it as an alternative platform for the mobilisation of our
people so that we will not betray Ken…the only thing I see as the
success of our struggle is that our oil is under the soil.” The
Ogoni Solidarity Forum with the support of the environmental
laureate Nnimmo Bassey have successfully used the November 10
remembrance anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other 8 Ogoni to
mobilise the people and demand their legitimate rights.

In the famous words of Nelson Mandela “it always seems impossible
until it’s done”; I have a dream of a prosperous Ogoniland with
its waters restored to health, its land flowing once again with
milk and honey and the people reconnected with nature. I have a
dream that one day; the whole of Niger Delta will be free from
oil extraction and gas flaring. In one of his parting salvo Ken
Saro-Wiwa says “we are going to demand our rights, peacefully,
non-violently, and we shall WIN!” Let us stand with the Ogoni
people believing that in our right comes our might!